Thursday, January 31, 2008
deja vu all over again
History often repeats itself. Though most of his ideas are now relegated to the bottom of the well, Karl Marx was right about one thing. If we don't learn from history, we're doomed to repeat the same mistakes all over again.
That's the lesson in tonight's investigative story about a new-age hybrid of identify theft. Our I team has covered ID theft from the get-go. We were one of the first news teams in the country that recognized and reported on the consequences of this fraud. In time it would be recognized as a major consumer crime. When 10News started reporting on the problem, the first stories dealt with the bad guys who were the first practitioners of ID theft. They were the meth users, aka "tweekers," who were stealing from mailboxes. Mailboxes can be easy targets and who knows, the tweekers might get lucky and come up with credit cards, maybe even cash. But it evolved into a more sophisticated crime -- identifty theft. The tweekers and those that followed them, soon realized the value in stealing information about an individual. It's big business now, even the Russian mob does it.
That brings us to our current investigation. Producers Heidi Ortiz and Kristen Castillo worked to bring this story to viewers on 10news.
It is a story about medical identity theft. Someone assumes another's identity and runs up medical bills in the victim's name. Not only does this bring on the collection agencies, it screws up your medical records and makes your complicated life even more full of hassles. And care to quess the motivation for the medical ID thief in our story? Drugs.
(Bill from a collection agency)
As we tried to warn consumers years ago when identify theft first appeared in a major way, you have to be proactive to keep this from happening to you.
I recommend anyone interested in protecting his or her medical records and credit should watch the story and heed the advice of reporter Elizabeth Sanchez. Watch both stories if you will, the first one at 11pm tonight, the second tomorrow morning on our 6am newscast. Together they will give you the help you need.
Or you may well become the newest victim of the newest form of identifty theft.
jwblog@10news.com
That's the lesson in tonight's investigative story about a new-age hybrid of identify theft. Our I team has covered ID theft from the get-go. We were one of the first news teams in the country that recognized and reported on the consequences of this fraud. In time it would be recognized as a major consumer crime. When 10News started reporting on the problem, the first stories dealt with the bad guys who were the first practitioners of ID theft. They were the meth users, aka "tweekers," who were stealing from mailboxes. Mailboxes can be easy targets and who knows, the tweekers might get lucky and come up with credit cards, maybe even cash. But it evolved into a more sophisticated crime -- identifty theft. The tweekers and those that followed them, soon realized the value in stealing information about an individual. It's big business now, even the Russian mob does it.
That brings us to our current investigation. Producers Heidi Ortiz and Kristen Castillo worked to bring this story to viewers on 10news.
It is a story about medical identity theft. Someone assumes another's identity and runs up medical bills in the victim's name. Not only does this bring on the collection agencies, it screws up your medical records and makes your complicated life even more full of hassles. And care to quess the motivation for the medical ID thief in our story? Drugs.
(Bill from a collection agency)
As we tried to warn consumers years ago when identify theft first appeared in a major way, you have to be proactive to keep this from happening to you.
I recommend anyone interested in protecting his or her medical records and credit should watch the story and heed the advice of reporter Elizabeth Sanchez. Watch both stories if you will, the first one at 11pm tonight, the second tomorrow morning on our 6am newscast. Together they will give you the help you need.
Or you may well become the newest victim of the newest form of identifty theft.
jwblog@10news.com
Posted at 10:16 AM by jw
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